The present invention concerns multifunctional epoxy resins prepared by dehydrohalogenating the reaction product of (1) a polyglycidyl ether of a polyhydroxyl-containing material said glycidyl ether having an average of at least 0.05 aliphatic hydroxyl group per molecule and an average of more than one glycidyl ether group per molecule such as a diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A, (2) a hydrolyzed monoglycidyl ether of a material having one aromatic hydroxyl group or one aliphatic hydroxyl group per molecule, (3) a hydrolyzed glycidyl ether of a material having an average of more than one aromatic hydroxyl group or aliphatic hydroxyl group per molecule, (4) the reaction product of a monoglycidyl ether with a polyphenolic compound, or (5) a combination of (1), (2), (3) or (4) with an epihalohydrin.
Multifunctional epoxy resins such as the epoxy novolac resins are well known. They are useful for many applications such as powder coatings, electronic circuit encapsulation, electrical laminates and the like. While these epoxy novolac resins have relatively good properties, the multifunctional epoxy resins possess an improvement in one or more of the properties such as toughness and/or heat distortion temperature, acid resistance and the like. These new multifunctional epoxy resins are particularly useful in the preparation of electrical laminates.